Galaxy S5 vs. HTC One (M8) Camera Comparison

The Galaxy S5 and the HTC One (M8) are the latest flagship Android smartphones to hit the market, but both offer very different cameras when it comes down to the technology and software used. Samsung is focused on delivering quality, high-resolution images, while HTC is focused on allowing more light in but with lower-resolution shots.

HTC’s bet paid off relatively well in low-light situations with the HTC One M7, and it tried to improve on that this time. It offers other options, too, like Zoes, a unique Duo Camera for capturing depth information and changing the focus later, and more. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S5 has plenty of camera options, too, but they’re more on a par with what we’ve seen in the past.

We took both cameras out for a night on the town in Disneyland to see how they compared. We did our best to take the same shot at the same time in every situation, and then cropped them to a 100% zoom so you can see how the details hold up. HTC hasn’t done particularly well in this arena in the past, largely again because there’s not much image left to crop with a lower-resolution 4-megapixel image. That said, it’s supposed to fare really well in low-light situations.

In some scenarios we balanced the phones on a railing to make sure we weren’t moving. In others, we simply fired from the hip. Hopefully you’ll get an idea of how the two stack up by checking out all of our comparison shots below.